Friday, 9 September 2016

UMi Plus brings solid specs for just $179.99

This post is sponsored by UMi.

It’s easy to
choose a good-high end phone. After all, there isn’t too much
differentiating them, and even the prices are equally high. Things do get more
competitive once we start moving towards the affordable end of the spectrum,
though. Take the UMi Plus as an example, a smartphone with great high-end
qualities, but a price that will undercut most of its competitors.

You may not
have heard of UMi before, and we know it’s hard to trust obscure brands, but
this one does offer a great bang for your buck. Let’s start by saying that you
can pre-order this phone for just $179.99 (regular price is set at $249.99).
What do you get for under two Benjamins?

UMi Plus
specs:

Android 6.0 Marshmallow

5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 2.5D
Arc screen

Octa-core Mediatek Helio P10
processor

ARM Mali T860 GPU

4 GB of RAM

32 GB of internal storage

13 MP rear camera, 5 MP
front camera

4,000 mAh battery

Available in gold and gray

There’s
also plenty of extra features you usually don’t see in affordable handsets,
including a fingerprint reader, an aerospace class aluminum body, quick
charging, dual SIM slots and more.

We
are sure you are probably wondering about that processor. Having your doubts is
only natural, as Mediatek chipsets are not up there with Qualcomm, Samsung and
the others. This happens to be a pretty good CPU, though. It is known to be
able to beat much of the Snapdragon 600 series, and even older high-end
processors like the Snapdragon 801.

Add
in the fact that the rest of the specs in here are pretty much considered
high-end, and you have yourself an amazing smartphone for a crazy low price. It
runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, something not even big
manufacturers can accomplish sometimes. In addition, we have an amazing 4 GB of
RAM and a 4,000 mAh battery in there.

On
top of all that, you don’t have to deal with all that crazy bloatware many devices
still carry. This phone offers a “Pure” experience, meaning the UI is as close
to stock Android as you can get. We know how much many of you love a clean
Android UI!

The competition

UMi
is obviously not alone in the market. There are both big and small
manufacturers going against it, so we thought a nice chart would give you a
good perspective at what we are looking at.

UMi
Plus

Oppo
R9

Xiaomi
Redmi Note 3

Meizu
M3 Note

Display

5.5-inch;
1,920x1,080 pixels

5.5-inch;
1,920x1,080 pixels

5.5-inch;
1,920x1,080 pixels

5.5
inch; 1080 x 1920 pixels

Operating System

Android
6.0 Marshmallow

Android
5.1 Lollipop

Android
5.1 Lollipop

Android
5.1 Lollipop

Main Camera

13-megapixel

13-megapixel

16-megapixel

13-megapixel

Front Camera

5-megapixel

16-megapixel

5-megapixel

5-megapixel

Processor

2.0GHz
octa-core Mediatek Helio P10

2.0GHz
octa-core Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10

Quad-core
1.4GHz, dual-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 650

1.8
GHz Quad-core Cortex-A53

RAM

4GB

4GB

3GB

2GB

Internal Storage

32GB

64GB

32GB

16GB

Battery

4,000mAh
battery nonremovable

2,850mAh
battery nonremovable

4,000mAh
battery nonremovable

4100
mAh battery nonremovable

Fingerprint Scanner

Home
button

Home
button

Back
cover

Home
button

Special Features

Fast
charging, Dual-SIM

Fast
charging, Dual-SIM

Dual-SIM

Dual-SIM

Price

$179.99
pre-order ($249.99 regular price)

$424.99

$219.99

$254.90

As
you can see, the UMi Plus can really hold its own.

Wrapping up

The UMi Ultra may not be backed by one of the
popular brands, but it is looking like a good phone to buy in a tight budget.
Its only downside is probably the processor… and it isn’t that bad. Every other
spec in the list is amazing!

Once again, the $179.99 price point is for
those who pre-order the device. Simply go to the UMi Plus page and subscribe to
get more details by email. Hey, you could even win one for free. Just subscribe
for the giveaway in the same page, tell the company which is your favorite
feature in this phone and give them a quick comment. The winner will be chosen
this September 30th at 18:00 GMT+2.